>Russia

>I had a visitor from Russia. How cool is that? Wish they had left a comment, but I don’t read or speak Russian, so unless they knew English, it wouldn’t matter anyway. I wonder what life is like in Russia, how people there manage with chronic illness, what their health-care system is like, what they eat for breakfast, do they have the same drek on tv that we do. I can think of a jillion questions. Or a lot, anyway.

Had a pretty good day after a so-so weekend of poor sleep and just vegging. Went out with a friend and did a little shopping, then watched some Torchwood fanvids and played a game on here. It was a gorgeous day which changed to a rainy evening. I like rain. There’s just something so….wet…..about it. LOL Really, it’s just a kind of comforting bit of weather, maybe because it was so dry when I was growing up in Colorado. It’s late, and I’m off to bed. Homemaker tomorrow. Have to be up on time.

>About This Blog

>I love my blog, I really do. It’s cute, and it’s changeable, and I can add lots of extras. But the links aren’t clickable, sometimes I can’t reply to comments, and I hardly get any comments anyway. Whether that’s because I am not a great blogger or because it doesn’t let people comment, I don’t know. I am again seriously considering moving it, but if anyone reads this who ISN’T one of my children, I’d appreciate a comment. Or email me at excentric97 AT operamail.com. I really need to make the decision to move it or not, and could use your help, readers.

>Flu Vaccination and Fibro/CFS

>Here’s a link to a post from a blog I read regularly. I never get a flu shot, and I had flu way back in the late 50’s-early 60’s and I read somewhere (this link?) that I may be immune because of it. I am careful with handwashing, etc., and would rather not expose myself to something that may cause serious consequences. Anyone remember the last swine flu vaccine debacle? How do you all feel about this? Here’s the link:

http://www.fightingfatigue.org/?p=7721

>Autumn

>I love Autumn. I do. Day before yesterday was a perfect Autumn day. Clear, cool, blue sky, beautiful. Just perfect.

Update on the fibro life…..after the good day I had last week, I had not-good days up until Tuesday, the perfect Autumn day. I had a very good day Tuesday, then not so much yesterday, and a pretty good day today. I don’t know what makes the difference.

Saturday, even though I wasn’t feeling great, I managed to get it together enough to go to a friend’s house and do some pc fixing and cleaning and just making things less annoying. I got a great free dinner for my trouble, cooked by my friend, who is a great cook, and I didn’t even have to clean up after. Her hubbies helped with that. Which was good, because by then I was totally exhausted. But her pc is working much better, and I got AOL to stop hijacking everything. I hate AOL. I’m sorry, but I do. I am so glad I never got sucked in to downloading it. She spent more time getting it out of her way than using the computer for things she wanted to do.

Hoping to get my Torchwood Season One DVD’s tomorrow. I already have seasons two and three. I plan to watch them one after the other on one of my ‘can’t do anything so may as well watch tv’ days. There are a lot of those with fibro/chronic fatigue, believe me. And tv…..the actual broadcast tv, is really terrible. It’s a lot like AOL…..many, many interruptions so you can’t watch the show you want to watch. Commercials have grown exponentially the past several years, making the whole tv experience one big annoyance. And they wonder why they are losing viewers. Between commercials and those horrible screen-covering popups and logos, why even bother.

Speaking of Torchwood, if they do happen to make a season four, I’m not sure I will watch it. It seems Russell Davies is killing off people just so he can get Jack and Gwen together. I’m expecting Rhys to die if there is a season four. When you watch them without a week between eps, you really get to see what a peach Gwen really is. She lies continually to Rhys and Andy, she uses Andy whenever possible to get what she wants. She is really not a very nice person, I think. And I’m still really, really angry about Ianto. So there!

>It was a good day

>In spite of not sleeping well because of leg pain and restless legs acting up, I was up at 9am. but the best part is that I ate well all day. Started with coffee, then oatmeal. Lunch was a Kashi frozen lasagna-type thing, then I had fage with a bit of maple syrup for snack, scrambled eggs with cheese for dinner, and now I’m having some whole grain toast. Oh, and I had a root beer float after lunch. I don’t usually eat this much in a day, but what I do eat is not as healthy, so I am pleased.

Tonight I watched ‘Live Free or Die Hard’, an impossible-to-believe movie in which any normal person would have been dead after the first half hour, but hey, it’s Bruce. I only watched it cause it has Justin Long, who I like. He used to be on Ed, and I remember thinking he was going to be a big deal. He held his own with Mr. Willis, I thought. He was great in ‘Galaxy Quest’, too, even though his role wasn’t that big. I love that movie and watch whenever it’s on. Even with commercials.

Tomorrow is tech support day. I’m going to my friend Tess’s house to work on her pc. That will be fun. We do tend to get hysterical with laughter a lot.

Hoping for a good night with actual sleeping going on. I’ll let you know.

>It’s feeling very autumnish. My favorite season. I am better today. Yesterday I was very, very tired and fell asleep on the couch in the afternoon. But my new homemaker came yesterday, and she is fantastic. I really like her and she does a very good job of cleaning.

Last night I had an ‘I need my tech person’ call from my friend Tess. She inadvertently downloaded a baaad fake Windows Defender look alike and it sort of high-jacked her pc. Couldn’t really help over the phone, so over to her house for awhile trying to fix it. She has AOL. NEVER use AOL. That is the true pc hijacker. It would not allow us to do anything. It just kept on popping up and getting in the way. What a nuisance that program is. Anyway, finally had her just shut it all down, disconnect from the modem and unplug. She is busy today and tomorrow, but Friday we will try to use the fix we found when we googled back here at my house. The moral is….never click on a popup unless you are absolutely positive you know what it is. It looked like Defender and she thought it was an update, so ran it. Oops.

I also am going to try using gmail to import her aol mail so she can then delete it forever…..AOL, not her mail. *grin*. I really enjoy fiddling with things on the pc and trying to fix, make it work, whatever. I like to download new things to try, too.

Did not sleep well because in spite of two ibuprofen, my legs hurt all night. Just a little fibro update here, folks.

>More with the fibro

>I am feeling lousy again. Could sleep all the time if I let myself. But today the new homemaker starts, so I am up and showered. I had a bowl of grapenuts and immediately felt worse, which doesn’t usually happen, IIRC, so not sure what that’s about. It’s lovely weather, though. There’s always something positive going on, isn’t there? Off to get dressed. Sloowly.

>Autumn Begins

>
A few trees are beginning to turn, the weather has gotten much nicer….cooler and less humid. I am feeling much better, too. Every day without sugar-free ice cream has me feeling better than the day before. Very interesting. The picture is the John Greenleaf Whittier house near Haverhill, MASS. It’s by J. Woodhull Adams. I’ve been by the actual house hundreds of times, since it wasn’t that far from where I lived in New Hampshire. It really does look just like that. The main road goes up on the near side of the house, and there is a smaller road that goes by the front.

I just found out I lost another homemaker, due to agency not providing her enough hours. Her sister is taking over for her. This is one of the most difficult parts of being ill, the constant changing of the homemaker. Some are great, some okay, some not so good, and it’s the good ones who seem to last the shortest amount of time. It’s a crap job anyway, doing other people’s laundry, cleaning other people’s bathrooms, grocery shopping which is not fun even when you’re doing it for your own family. They really aren’t paid very well, either, so it’s amazing anyone even chooses the job in the first place. I think it’s a ‘not enough skills or education for a better job’ kind of thing. But it would be nice to have the same person, if she’s a good cleaner, all the time. Starting over with someone new is hard, especially because of the nature of what they do for me. “Here’s my dirty laundry, new person. Deal with it.” I really hate that. You know how they say, “Be careful what you wish for?” I always wished someone else would clean the toilet, my least favorite job. Well, now someone does, but I am in pain and too fatigued to function and my brain doesn’t work well and my life has gotten more and more insulated and my world has shrunken…….but someone else cleans the toilet. A fair trade-off? I don’t think so. So that wishing thing is really a catch-22 kind of deal. A dirty trick the cosmos plays on you. Oh, well.

>Artificial Sweetener Update

>No ice cream for two days, and woke up this am feeling much better. Much less pain, and not as fatigued, although I did need a long nap. Very long. Almost four hours. But I was able to shower and get dressed, get some work done in the kitchen and went down to get my mail. I’m debating waiting another day or so and then trying the ice cream again to see if that really was the problem. It’s really hard sometimes to figure out what causes flares. Is it a change in the weather, a food, what? I’m not good at keeping track of everything I do, or eat, or the weather. I suppose if I did, I would be able to see patterns, but it’s just that much more to be responsible for when I’m not up for doing much of anything anyway. It’s never simple, is it?